Rags to Riches: II

Its January and I'm taking sunny pictures outside. WTH?

The weaving part of rag rugs is relatively easy. Well, I said "relatively."

4 epi, straight twill. 

Tip #1 Set it wide. Yes, wider even then you think. 4 ends per inch you say? Only for a twill. Three per inch is a safer bet. I've even used 2 epi for plain weave.

A slightly fancy edge.

Tip #2 Stay away from rug warp. Yes, it's super strong, but it's also thin. Rag rugs aren't woven at very high tension, in fact the washcloth on the loom right now is far tighter then I ever pulled my rug warps.  A thick cotton, I use coned kitchen cotton, is far easier on your fingers when tensioning and produces a far nicer finished edge and fringe. Thin rug warp at 3 ends per inch is almost impossible to pull into a neat finish.  Bonus: 2 or 3 passes with your warp yarn in the weft makes a sweet weft protector during finishing.

None of these "in progress" pictures are off the rug up top. 

Tip #3. Be prepared to place your weft by hand. Sure there are rag shuttles that will hold tons of rag at a time. But let's be honest, none of your strips are more then 6 feet long. Any piece shorter then 3 feet will just fall off your shuttle, so at most you can use the shuttle once, and then hand place the rest. Really, it's not so bad.

Tip #4 Random striping is harder then it looks, but worth the pay off. Trying to make sure it's balanced while still being random will drive you bonkers. A quick solution is to divide all of your colors in half. Use half of each before you get to the middle, use the other half after the middle. Beyond that, let randomness take hold. It'll be fine, I promise.